Find a Way Out

Chapter 2

This room is quite vintage, better than the first.
Definitely better.

The first room was so depressing. The dullness just let off an odd vibe that made me feel like vomiting. Anyways, this room, well I must say this library is quite nice. So organized, it creeps me out. The walls are filled with wine-tinted wooden shelves occupied by dozens of thick hard cover books. All having the same cover color. Beige. They're properly ordered by numbers. Each book has a number on the side of its cover, which I don't know the reason to, but I mean it's a mystery I got to solve, right?

Above the front wall, I spot the countdown clock, and I still have twenty-one hours and fifty-five minutes left to get the heck out of here.

I approach the wall ahead of me when a sudden invisible laser line caught my leg. I'm feeling the shock pass through my whole body slowly and tensely as I collapse to the floor. Confused to what just happened, I struggle to keep my eyes open, but the world in front of me fades as I blink my eyes harshly trying to restore my strength.

21: 32

I'm on the floor trying to regain force. I fight my weakness to hop on and stand on my trembling legs. As soon as I re-claim posture, what I see in front of me is something I never thought I'd see, nor experience in real life.

I only see this in movies, ones I believe are used with green screens to produce most of the scenes. In front of me, an uncountable number of holes on the walls letting out red laser tags in all ways forming a huge puzzling laser maze in the room.

Now where's the turn off button to this?

Oh
my
god.

I stand still in my place, and scan the room with my blurry eyed vision for a single entity to guide me to survival, because I'm certainly tired of this.

I back off a little to display the whole view of the room before me, and as I turn my attention to the left, I realize that one of the laser holes is placed on a clear side of the left wall. I approach it. When I have a clear view of the hole, I examine it from all ways, until I focus on a button below the laser line.

Now my finger is too big to press it, it would be too dangerous. Not taking the risk of losing a finger today.

I think hard to find a replacement for my finger. I look around the room, but there is nothing on the empty side of the room (where no laser tags are).

Think, damn it. Think.

I run my hands through the back of my jeans frustrated. I stop midway at my back pockets, and there's something in my pocket. I didn't even feel it before, didn't even realize. Anyways, I reach my hand into my pocket, and remove the anonymous thing from it. It's a key, different from the one I used to open the hidden entry to the room that I'm in right now. This key is a small and golden, very insignificant yet unusual key. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. Maybe it's another key for the door that'll get me out of here.

Anyhow, I reach the key gently to the button below the hole, and press it lightly. As fast as I do so, I glance at the room and the laser maze has disappeared, except for one laser tag. It didn't turn off, it's still on. I turn my direction to where it's coming from and I realize that it is leading me to something, it's pointing to a shelf, to a specific book, a book that doesn't have a number on the side of its cover.

Okay, pretty suspicious.

I approach it carefully and hope that I'd see my kids again. I take the book out of the shelf, and as fast as I do, the laser tag turns off.